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Suruc, Turkey – After fierce clashes with IS militants, the joint Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units and the Peshmerga reported advances towards the city of Tel Abyad in Raqqa province, in northern Syria, a military source reported on Monday.

The radical group of the Islamic State (IS/ISIL) has been in control over Tel Abyad and its surrounding for nearly two years.

The Kurdish forces retook the first village near Tel Abyad after forcing IS extremists out of the village.

Speaking to ARA News, the YPG fighter Noureddin Gabani said the joint Kurdish forces were able on Monday to liberate the village of Baghdik, administratively linked to the city of Tel Abyad in Raqqa province.

“Following intense bombardment by the Peshmerga forces against IS headquarters in the area, the joint forces took over strategic hills overlooking Tel Abyad,” he added.

Noureddin pointed out that the joint forces also seized control of the village of Jaada in southwestern Kobane, near the Qara Qozak Bridge, after an air strike launched by the U.S.-led coalition’s warplanes on a checkpoint of the Islamic State group (IS/ISIS) near the bridge.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed the news, saying: “The Kurdish forces in cooperation with the Syrian opposition forces (FSA) took over an IS-held hilltop (in reference to a hill overlooking the village of Baghdik) in Raqqa after bloody clashes.”

This is the first time the Kurdish forces have enter the province of Raqqa.

At least 35 IS militants were killed, while four members of the Kurdish forces were reported killed during the clashes.

The Kurds have regained at least 163 villages in the countryside of Kobane in the past three weeks after expelling the IS terrorists from the city.

Notably, the joint forces have blocked the international highway of Rodko from IS extremists.